Mini Bonus Content: The Real Writing Process of Neil Williamson

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Hello and welcome to The Real Writing Process.

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I'm your host, Tom Pepperdine.

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And this mini interview is with the wonderful writer, musician, and all

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around top bloke, Neil Williamson.

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I caught up with Neil at EasterCon in a very busy bar.

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Furthermore, we were both wearing masks.

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So as you can imagine, it's been quite a challenge to clear up the sound.

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But I've done it, because I love you dear listeners.

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And I like to show off.

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Here are my five questions with Neil Williamson.

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Neil Williamson, we're here on the Sunday of EasterCon.

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I have five questions for you.

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Uh, the first one, when you write, do you write best in a fixed location or

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do you prefer to write wherever you can?

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Wherever I can, as long as it's not at home.

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Okay.

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Which during lockdown was a problem.

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Um, as soon as I was able to get out, back to writing in cafes

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again, that's when my writing picked up again during the COVID times.

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So.

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So is that you've got kids and sort of lots of family?

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I just, I just, my brain won't settle at home for writing purposes.

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I can go to the cafe across the road, which had to close down during

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COVID, which is really annoying.

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There was a coffee across the road.

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I could go there and immediately switch into writing mode.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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Oh, nice.

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Well, I'm glad that you can do that.

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Would you describe yourself as a planner or a pantser?

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I don't think anyone's truly one or the other.

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I think we're all a little bit of those things.

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So what I tend to do is have an idea, outline a little bit,

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just enough to get it going.

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Write a bit.

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Redo the outline a little bit.

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Write a little bit more and just kind of iterate all the way to the end.

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Okay.

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Do you like using a word counts as targets or are they like just a source of anxiety

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and you don't try and do that at all?

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I actually quite, quite like it.

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Well, if I've a long project.

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I quite like it.

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I think they're useful too.

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I don't make myself hit them.

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I find it useful to say well, need to a bit more.

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And when you're looking at your outline, is it that you're writing to say like

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10,000 words and then you review, is that, do you have it like that structured?

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Or is it just more, I feel like I'm getting to a point where I

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might need to just check back?

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Yeah.

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So what happens with my novels, certainly, is the ideas are

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kind of world-building ideas.

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I don't plan the world beforehand.

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But sometimes I realize I've, I've come up with a thing that's

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going to change everything that's gone before in a little way.

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And I have to go through and just sort of filter that through and just another

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layer layer of mulch on the garden.

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Yes.

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So you keep laying and laying down more mulch and eventually you get

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something sort of deep and rich.

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Yeah.

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Uh it's actually, um, do you know Jen William?

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Uh, so she says about composting, uh, ideas and that yeah, you just

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have to throw a load of junk on it and there's let it, like you say

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mulch and just become fertile soil.

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So yeah, it's, it's a metaphor that I like.

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I feel that each writer learns and develops with every story that they write.

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Can you think of anything on the last story that you finished and in that

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editing and in that writing of completing that story, that you learned something

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about your writing and that you're now applying to your latest story?

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It's a difficult question.

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I always think I'm learning.

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I've been doing this 20 something years.

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I still think there's something, there's always something to learn.

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The last thing I finished was a short story.

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Which had a really odd organic structure that I wasn't, I didn't, I didn't plan

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at all, and I think the thing that I learned from that is that's something

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I think I can trust myself to do.

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Nice.

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So yeah, I might do that more often.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, no, absolutely.

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Is that gaining confidence with it.

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You know, sort of just doing something out of your comfort zone.

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That's good.

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And my last question, is there one piece of writing advice that you've

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either been told or read um, that you feel really applies to your writing,

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that really has helped you as a writer?

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Yeah, the one thing that I try to do that someone told me many years ago

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was at least try and finish, to a draft stage at least, everything you start.

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Yes.

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Because it's too easy to give up on things when there, you hit

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a little bit stumbling block.

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And it's too easy to go, oh it's not working now.

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I don't know where to go with it.

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Push through, get to the end and then look at it.

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And you might still want to junk it or put it away.

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Yeah.

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But at least you got a finished story you can edit at that point.

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No, absolutely.

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And Neil Williamson, thank you very much.

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You're welcome.

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Thank you Tom.

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And those were my five questions about Neil's writing process.

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Would you like a longer interview with Neil?

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Me too.

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We'll get there, dear listeners, we'll get there.

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In the meantime, I need to get back to editing the full interviews

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that I really should be releasing.

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And to all those writers I've met recently and are keen to be on the show.

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I have an outro song for you.